About

Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Shenango

The Pennsylvania State University (commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU) is a public, state-related research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855, the university has a stated threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service. Its instructional mission includes undergraduate, graduate, professional and continuing education offered through resident instruction and online delivery. Its University Park campus, the flagship campus, lies within the Borough of State College and College Township. It has two law schools, Penn State Law, on the school's University Park campus, and Dickinson Law, located in Carlisle. The College of Medicine is located in Hershey. Penn State has another 19 commonwealth campuses and 5 special-mission campuses located across the state. Penn State has been labeled one of the "Public Ivies," a publicly funded university considered as providing a quality of education comparable to those of the Ivy League.

Annual enrollment at the University Park campus totals more than 45,000 graduate and undergraduate students, making it one of the largest universities in the United States. It has the world's largest dues-paying alumni association. The university's total enrollment in 2009–10 was approximately 94,300 across its 24 campuses and online through its World Campus.

The university offers more than 160 majors among all its campuses and administers $2.03 billion (as of June 30, 2013) in endowment and similar funds. The university's research expenditures exceeded $753 million for the 2009 fiscal year and was ranked 9th among U.S. universities in research income by the National Science Foundation.

Annually, the university hosts the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (THON), which is the world's largest student-run philanthropy. This event is held in the Bryce Jordan Center on the University Park campus. In 2014, THON raised a program record of $13.3 million. The university's athletics teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Penn State Nittany Lions. They compete in the Big Ten Conference for most sports.

History

Early years

Old Main c. 1855

The school was founded as a degree-granting institution on February 22, 1855, by act P.L. 46, No. 50 of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania. Centre County, Pennsylvania, became the home of the new school when James Irvin of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, donated 200 acres (0.8 km) of land – the first of 10,101 acres (41 km) the school would eventually acquire. In 1862, the school's name was changed to the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, and with the passage of the Morrill Land-Grant Acts, Pennsylvania selected the school in 1863 to be the state's sole land-grant college. The school's name changed to the Pennsylvania State College in 1874; enrollment fell to 64 undergraduates the following year as the school tried to balance purely agricultural studies with a more classic education.

George W. Atherton became president of the school in 1882, and broadened the curriculum. Shortly after he introduced engineering studies, Penn State became one of the ten largest engineering schools in the nation. Atherton also expanded the liberal arts and agriculture programs, for which the school began receiving regular appropriations from the state in 1887. A major road in State College has been named in Atherton's honor. Additionally, Penn State's Atherton Hall, a well-furnished and centrally located residence hall, is named not after George Atherton himself, but after his wife, Frances Washburn Atherton. His grave is in front of Schwab Auditorium near Old Main, marked by an engraved marble block in front of his statue.

Early 20th century

Students sit outside of Pennsylvania State College (c.1922)

In the years that followed, Penn State grew significantly, becoming the state's largest grantor of baccalaureate degrees and reaching an enrollment of 5,000 in 1936. Around that time, a system of commonwealth campuses was started by President Ralph Dorn Hetzel to provide an alternative for Depression-era students who were economically unable to leave home to attend college.

In 1953, President Milton S. Eisenhower, brother of then-U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, sought and won permission to elevate the school to university status as The Pennsylvania State University. Under his successor Eric A. Walker (1956–1970), the university acquired hundreds of acres of surrounding land, and enrollment nearly tripled. In addition, in 1967, the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, a college of medicine and hospital, was established in Hershey with a $50 million gift from the Hershey Trust Company.

Modern era

Beaver Stadium

In the 1970s, the university became a state-related institution. As such, it now belongs to the Commonwealth System of Higher Education, and is now part of the fully public Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. In 1975, the lyrics in Penn State's alma mater song were revised to be gender-neutral in honor of International Women's Year; the revised lyrics were taken from the posthumously-published autobiography of the writer of the original lyrics, Fred Lewis Pattee, and Professor Patricia Farrell acted as a spokesperson for those who wanted the change.

In recent years, the university's role as a leader in education in Pennsylvania has become very well-defined. In 1989, the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport joined ranks with the university, and in 2000, so did the Dickinson School of Law. The university is now the largest in Pennsylvania, and in 2003, it was credited with having the second-largest impact on the state economy of any organization, generating an economic effect of over $17 billion on a budget of $2.5 billion. To offset the lack of funding due to the limited growth in state appropriations to Penn State, the university has concentrated its efforts on philanthropy (2003 marked the end of the Grand Destiny campaign—a seven-year effort that raised over $1.3 billion).

Child sex abuse scandal

In 2011, the university and its football team garnered major international media attention and criticism due to a sex abuse scandal in which university officials were alleged to have covered up incidents of child sexual abuse by former football team defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Athletic director Timothy Curley and Gary Schultz, Senior Vice President for Finance and Business, were indicted for perjury. In the wake of the scandal, coach Joe Paterno was fired and school president Graham B. Spanier was forced to resign by the Board of Trustees. Sandusky, who maintained his innocence, was indicted and subsequently convicted in June 2012 on 45 counts for the abuse.

A subcommittee of the Board of Trustees engaged former FBI director Louis Freeh to head an independent investigation on the university's handling of the incidents and in July 2012 he released his findings, concluding that Paterno, along with Spanier, Curley and Schultz "conceal[ed] Sandusky's activities from the Board of Trustees, the University community and authorities" and "failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade." The NCAA penalized Penn State football with a $60 million fine, a ban from bowl games and post-season play for 4 years, a reduction in scholarships from 25 to 15 per year for four years, the vacating of all wins from 1998 to 2011 and a 5-year probationary period. The scholarship reduction and post-season ban were later lifted in September 2014 following a report by former U.S. Senator and athletics integrity monitor George J. Mitchell citing progress in implementing reforms. An investigation funded by the Paterno family and led by former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh disagreed with Freeh's report, but Freeh stood by his original findings and called the Thornburg report "self-serving."

Campuses

University Park

The largest of the university's 24 campuses, University Park is almost entirely within the boundaries of State College borough, a site chosen because it is near the geographic center of the state. With an undergraduate acceptance rate of 51 percent, it is the most selective campus in the Penn State system, due primarily to the fact that students select University Park as their first-choice campus at a far greater rate than the university's other undergraduate campuses. During the fall 2010 semester, 38,594 undergraduate students and 6,223 graduate students were enrolled at University Park. Of those, 45.3 percent were female and 30.6 percent were not Pennsylvania residents.

Global

What is likely the best kept secret at Penn State is that there are actually several campuses in locations outside of the United States. Of the 3 global locations, the largest one is in Australia, with nearly 1,200 students. There are also two smaller locations in Germany and China. They each have around 650-700 students. These campuses provide an opportunity for less fortunate students to receive higher education from Penn State, even though they are unable to come to the United States.

Transportation access

The main University Park campus is centrally located at the junction of Interstate 99 and U.S. Route 322, and is due south of Interstate 80. Before the arrival of the Interstates the University was a short distance from a Lock Haven - Altoona branch line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The last run of long distance trains from Buffalo or Harrisburg through Lock Haven was in 1971. Today, the nearest passenger rail access is in Lewistown 31 miles to the southeast. The University Park Airport, serving four regional airlines, is near University Park.

Commonwealth campuses

• Erie

• Brandywine

• Abington

• Great Valley

• Berks

• Fayette

• Mont Alto

• York

• Harrisburg

• Lehigh

• Schuylkill

• Hazleton

• Wilkes-Barre

• Worthington Scranton

• University Park

• Altoona

• DuBois

• Shenango

• Beaver

• New Kensington

• Greater Allegheny

Map depicting the locations of Penn State's 19 commonwealth campuses and the University Park campus.

In addition to the University Park campus, 19 campus locations throughout the state offer enrollment for undergraduate students. Over 60 percent of Penn State first-year students begin their education at a location other than University Park. Each of these commonwealth campuses offer a unique set of degree programs based on the student demographics. Any student in good academic standing is guaranteed a spot at University Park to finish his or her degree if required or desired, known as "change of campus" or more accurately "the 2+2 program"; where a Penn State student may start at any Penn State campus, including University Park, for 2 years and finish at any Penn State the final 2 years.

Special-mission campuses

Dickinson School of Law - Carlisle Campus

The Dickinson School of Law, which was split in 2014 into Dickinson Law and Penn State Law, was founded in 1834 and is the oldest law school in Pennsylvania. It merged with Penn State in 2000. It has produced a number of governors, members of congress, and judges. A number of attorneys comprise the faculties at both schools and lead several centers and institutes devoted to specific practice areas. Penn State Law also houses the School of International Affairs.

The Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies is a special mission campus offering master's degrees, master's certification, and continuing professional education. Located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, it also offers classes at the old Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania, is the university's medical school and teaching hospital. Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center has become only the ninth hospital in the United States and 16th worldwide to implant the CardioWest temporary Total Artificial Heart when a 60-year-old man suffering from end-stage heart failure received the device in May 2008.

Pennsylvania College of Technology, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, offers certificates as well as degrees in over 10 technical fields.

In 1998, the university launched Penn State World Campus, or Penn State Online, which offers more than 60 online education programs, degrees, and certificates. Distance education has a long history at Penn State, one of the first universities in the country to offer a correspondence course for remote farmers in 1892. Examples of online programs include an MBA, master of professional studies in homeland security, a bachelor of science in nursing, and postbaccalaureate certificates in geographic information systems and applied behavior analysis. Penn State's World Campus offers 18 graduate degrees, 21 graduate certificates, 17 undergraduate degrees, and 11 undergraduate certificates. World Campus students come from all 50 U.S. states, more than 40 countries, and six continents.

Academics

Penn State is regionally accredited by The Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

As of September 2009, only 24 Pennsylvania colleges and universities held Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation in business and only four in accounting. The Smeal College of Business, The Sam and Irene Black School of Business, Penn State Harrisburg, and Penn State Great Valley were among the institutions accredited.

The university offers an accelerated Premedical-Medical Program in cooperation with Jefferson Medical College. Students in the program spend two or three years at the university before attending medical school at Jefferson.

Recently, a joint venture between the Eberly College of Science and the Smeal College of Business created an integrated undergraduate/graduate program to give highly motivated students the opportunity to receive a Bachelor's Degree in Science and an MBA two to five years sooner than those pursuing a traditional path. The BS/MBA Program prepares individuals to be future leaders of the world's scientific organizations and is led by Mr. Peter Tombros and Dr. James Gardner.

Demographics

As of fall 2010, the racial makeup of the Penn State system including all campuses and special-mission colleges, was 75.4 percent white, 5.5 percent black, 4.3 percent Asian, 4.4 percent Hispanic, 0.2 percent Native American, 0.1 percent Native Hawaiian/Pac Island, 1.7 percent two or more races, 5.8 percent international students and 3.1 percent of an unknown race. Over the period 2000–2010, minority enrollment as a percentage of total enrollments has risen 5.3 percentage points, while minorities as a percentage of total teaching positions rose 2.0 percentage points from 1997 to 2002.

Penn State has been the subject of controversy for several issues of discrimination. Following some violent attacks on African-Americans in downtown State College in 1988 and complaints that Penn State was not adequately recruiting African-American faculty and students to representative population levels, student activists occupied Old Main and demanded that Penn State do more to recruit minority students and address intolerance toward minority students on campus, as well as in the local community. After President Bryce Jordan canceled a promised meeting with students and organizations in the Paul Robeson Cultural Center on April 8, 1988, 250 students and activists nonviolently occupied Penn State's Telecommunications building on campus. The following morning, 50 state troopers and 45 local and campus police, equipped with helmets, batons, and rubber gloves, entered the building as the crowd outside sang “We Shall Overcome”, arresting 89 individuals for trespassing. All charges were later dismissed.

In 1990 a vice provost for educational equity was appointed to lead a five-year strategic plan to "create an environment characterized by equal access and respected participation for all groups and individuals irrespective of cultural differences." Since then, discrimination issues include the handling of death threats in 1992 and 2001, controversy around LGBT issues, and the investigation of a 2006 sexual discrimination lawsuit filed by former Lady Lions basketball player Jennifer Harris, alleging that head coach Rene Portland dismissed her from the team in part due to her perceived sexual orientation.

Six-year graduation rates for the 2004 cohort at University Park was 85.3 percent. Graduation rates for by race among this group are 86.6 percent white, 75.0 percent black, 81.9 percent Asian, 77.4 percent Hispanic, 57.1 percent Native American and 76.1 percent international students According to a 2006 survey by USA Today, the university's flagship campus, University Park, has the highest in-state tuition rates among comparable institutions nationwide. While a task force formed in 2001 to study options for tuition projections determined that the university's operating efficiency is among the highest in postsecondary education, it found that tuition increases at Penn State still consistently outpaced increases at other Big Ten Conference institutions. Student leaders of The Council of Commonwealth Student Governments (CCSG) have led annual rallies to support lower rate hikes at each of the nineteen commonwealth campuses and at the Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg. In 2005, the board of trustees proposed a tuition freeze at the commonwealth campus locations as part of its state appropriation request.

Research

The Forum Building is a classroom building with four classrooms, each capable of containing over 300 students.

According to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, the university is a research university with very high research activity. Over 10,000 students are enrolled in the university's graduate school (including the law and medical schools), and over 70,000 degrees have been awarded since the school was founded in 1922.

Penn State's research and development expenditure has been on the rise in recent years. For fiscal year 2011, the National Science Foundation reported that Penn State had spent $794,846,000 on R&D and ranked 15th among U.S. universities and colleges in R&D spending. For the 2008–2009 fiscal year, Penn State was ranked ninth among U.S. universities by the National Science Foundation, with $753 million in research and development spending for science and engineering. During the 2009–2010 fiscal year, Penn State received $780 million in research expenditures.

The Applied Research Lab (ARL), located near the University Park campus, has been a research partner with the United States Department of Defense since 1945 and conducts research primarily in support of the United States Navy. It is the largest component of Penn State's research efforts statewide, with over 1,000 researchers and other staff members.

The Materials Research Institute was created to coordinate the highly diverse and growing materials activities across Penn State's University Park campus. With more than 200 faculty in 15 departments, 4 colleges, and 2 Department of Defense research laboratories, MRI was designed to break down the academic walls that traditionally divide disciplines and thereby enable faculty to collaborate across departmental and even college boundaries. MRI has become a model for this interdisciplinary approach to research, both within and outside the university. Dr Richard E. Tressler, was an international leader in the development of high temperature materials. He pioneered high temperature fiber testing and use, advanced instrumentation and test methodologiesfor thermostructural materials, and design and performance verification of ceramics and composites in high temperature aerospace, industrial and energy applications. He was founding director of the Center for Advanced Materials (CAM) which supported many faculty and students from the College of Earth and Mineral Science, the Eberly College of Science, the College of Engineering, the Materials Research Laboratory and the Applied Research Laboratories at Penn State on high temperature materials. His vision for interdiscipling research played a key role in the creation of the Materials Research Institute, and the establishment of Penn State as an acknowledged leader among major universities in materials education and research.

The university was one of the founding members of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), a partnership that includes 17 research-led universities in the United States, Asia, and Europe. The network provides funding, facilitates collaboration between universities, and coordinates exchanges of faculty members and graduate students among institutions. Former Penn State president Graham Spanier is a former vice-chair of the WUN.

Pattee Library

The Pennsylvania State University Libraries were ranked 14th among research libraries in North America in the 2003–2004 survey released by The Chronicle of Higher Education. The university's library system began with a 1,500-book library in Old Main. In 2009, its holdings had grown to 5.2 million volumes, in addition to 500,000 maps, five million microforms, and 180,000 films and videos.

The university's College of Information Sciences and Technology is the home of CiteSeerX, an open-access repository and search engine for scholarly publications. The university is also the host to the Radiation Science & Engineering Center, which houses the oldest operating university research reactor. Additionally, University Park houses the Graduate Program in Acoustics, the only freestanding acoustics program in the United States. The university also houses the Center for Medieval Studies, a program that was founded to research and study the European Middle Ages, and the Center for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE), one of the first centers established to research postsecondary education.

Big Ten Committee on Institutional Cooperation

Penn State is a participant in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) is the academic consortium of the universities in the Big Ten Conference plus former conference member, the University of Chicago. The initiative also allows students at participating institutions to take distance courses at other participating institutions. The initiative also forms a partnership of research. Engaging in $8 billion in research in 2010, CIC universities are providing powerful insight into important issues in medicine, technology, agriculture, and communities. Students at participating schools are also allowed "in-house" viewing privileges at other participating schools' libraries. They also employ collective purchasing, which has saved member institutions $19 million to date.

Student life

Housing

The Irvin residence hall in West Halls

There are seven housing complexes located on campus for students attending the University Park campus: East Halls, North Halls, Pollock Halls, South Halls, West Halls, Eastview Terrace, and Nittany Apartments. Each complex consists of a few separate buildings that are dormitories and a commons building, which has lounges, the help desk for the complex, mailboxes for each dormitory room, a small food shop, and a cafeteria-style room. Different floors within a building may be designated as a Special Living Option (SLO). SLOs are offered to members of certain student groups (such as sororities), students studying particular majors, students who wish to engage in a particular life style (such as the alcohol-free LIFE House), or other groups who wish to pursue similar goals.

Student organizations

As of September 2014, 864 student organizations were recognized at the University Park campus. In addition, the university has one of the largest Greek systems in the country, with approximately 12 percent of the University Park population affiliated. Additional organizations on campus include Thespians, Blue Band, Glee Club, Aish HaTorah LateNight, and 3D Printer Club.

Student media

Student media on campus includes La Vie, the university's annual student yearbook; the student-run radio station The LION 90.7 FM (WKPS-FM); Com Radio, independently programmed and operated by university undergraduates; , a student-run newspaper; , a student-run independent news website covering the Penn State community; and Phroth, a student-run humor magazine. For additional information on media related to Penn State – including Penn State Live, the official news source of the University – see the Media section below.

Penn State Live is the official news source of the university published by its public relations team. The student-run newspaper is The Daily Collegian, which is published every weekday while classes are in session. Since the summer of 1996, the traditional paper publication has been supplemented by an online edition, known as The Digital Collegian. Onward State, was founded in November 2008 by Davis Shaver, Evan Kalikow, and Eli Glazier. In addition, Penn State's newspaper readership program provides free copies of USA Today, The New York Times, as well as local and regional newspapers depending on the campus location (for example, the Centre Daily Times in University Park). This program, initiated by then-President Graham Spanier in 1997, has since been instituted on nearly 400 other universities across the country.

La Vie (the Life), the university's annual student yearbook, has been in production documenting student life continuously since 1890. La Vie 1987, edited by David Beagin, won a College Gold Crown for Yearbooks award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

The student-run radio station is The LION 90.7 fm (WKPS-FM). Founded in 1995 as a replacement for Penn State's original student radio station WDFM, The LION broadcasts from the ground floor of the HUB–Robeson Center, serving the Penn State and State College communities with alternative music and talk programming, including live coverage of home Penn State football games.

In addition, the Penn State College of Communications operates ComRadio. It was founded in the spring of 2003 as an internet-based audio laboratory and co-curricular training environment for aspiring student broadcasters. ComRadio is most well known for its coverage of most major Penn State sporting events. ComRadio also airs student-produced Penn State news. Other programming includes student talk shows, political coverage, AP syndicated news and soft rock music. In recent years, ComRadio broadcasters have won numerous state awards for their on-air work. The station's sports department prides itself on the broadcasts of every home and away football game, including bowl games, and its coverage of the NFL Draft live from New York City.

Onward State is a student-run blog geared towards members of the university's community. The blog provides news, features, and event-listings. Founded in November 2008, U.S. News & World Report named the blog the "Best Alternative Media Outlet" in February 2009. Alison Go, a blogger of U.S. News & World Report organized the contest "Best Alternative Media Outlet" at the beginning of 2009. Onward State, still a fledgling organization, was surprisingly nominated. Pitted against Onward State were seasoned blogs from UC Berkeley, Vassar, Wesleyan, Columbia, Georgetown, Middlebury, Yale, and an Ivy League conglomerate. Snatching 24.76 percent of the vote, Onward State finished in first place, pleasantly surprising the Penn State bloggers. first acknowledged Onward State at the time of the blog's victory. The two Collegian articles brought greater awareness of the blog to the university's community. In an interview with The Collegian about next year's contest, Davis Shaver explained "We have big ambitions... I think that we're just going to be more established, more of a name within the Penn State community by then. There is a strong possibility of being Alternative Media repeat champions."

The student-run humor magazine is Phroth, which publishes two to four issues each year. Its roots date back to 1909 when it was called Froth. Several Froth writers and editors have gone on to win fame: Julius J. Epstein wrote the screenplay for the film (1942) and won three Academy Awards; Jimmy Dugan wrote for the , , and The New York Times; and Ronald Bonn was a producer with and .

Kalliope is an undergraduate literary magazine produced by students and sponsored by the university's English Department. Kalliope includes works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. The student-run life and style magazine is Valley.

Other

Every February, thousands of students participate in the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (THON), which has been "dubbed by supporters as the world's largest student-run philanthropy." In previous years, participants stood for 48 hours nonstop and performed a line dance at least once every hour to stay alert. In 2007, THON was moved to the Bryce Jordan Center and now lasts 46 hours. THON raises millions of dollars annually for pediatric cancer care and research, generally through the Four Diamonds Fund. In 2014, THON raised a program record of $13.3 million.

The university has the lowest percentage of students given the opportunity to purchase season in tickets in the Big Ten, and one of the lowest in the nation at just 25.25% (it should be noted that this percentage includes students at all 24 campuses statewide; the student section is approximately 50% of the students attending the University Park campus). Conversely, Ohio State University, with a student section of 29,000 tickets has seats for 57.16% of their students. Penn State students were listed number one in the "students who pack the stands" category of the 2009 Princeton Review survey. Due to a change in the way seating is assigned, beginning in 1993 tradition has been for students to camp outside of the stadium on the days leading up to important games. The campsite had been christened "Paternoville" in 2005, but was renamed to "Nittanyville" in 2012 after Paterno's retirement.

Athletics

Wall near Beaver Stadium

The "S-Zone", within the student section, represents "State".

Penn State's mascot is the Nittany Lion, a representation of a type of mountain lion that once roamed what is now University Park. The school's official colors, now blue and white, were originally black and dark pink. Penn State participates in the NCAA Division I-A and in the Big Ten Conference for most sports. A few sports participate in different conferences: men's volleyball in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA); men's lacrosse in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA); women's lacrosse in American Lacrosse conference; and hockey (American Collegiate Hockey Association). The fencing teams operate as independents.

Athletic teams at Penn State have won 68 national collegiate team championships (37 NCAA, 2 consensus Division I football titles, 6 AIAW, 3 USWLA, 1 WIBC, and 4 national titles in boxing, 11 in men's soccer and one in wrestling in years prior to NCAA sponsorship). There have been another 54 national collegiate championships, by either individuals or club teams. The 40 NCAA Championships ranks seventh all time in NCAA Division I, and is the most of any Big Ten school. Recent championships won include Women's Rugby (2007, 2009, 2010 as a club member of Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union (MARFU)), Men's Gymnastics (2007), Men's/Women's Fencing (2007, 2009, 2010), Men's Volleyball (2008), Women's Volleyball (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013), and Wrestling (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014) won their respective national titles. Since the 2007 season the university has won 10 National Championships in 5 different sports, the most among current Division 1-A teams.

Since joining the Big Ten in 1991, Penn State teams have won 60 regular season conference titles and 13 tournament titles, including fourteen consecutive titles in women's soccer (longest streak in women's Big Ten athletic history), and eighth straight in women's volleyball (the longest streak in Big Ten volleyball history).

Penn State has one of the most successful overall athletic programs in the country, as evidenced by its rankings in the NACDA Director's Cup, a list compiled by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics that charts institutions' overall success in college sports. From the Cup's inception in the 1993–1994 season through the 2007–2008 season, the Nittany Lions have finished in the top 10 eight times and the top five four times, and have finished in the top 25 every year. Since the 2007 season, Penn State has won ten National Championships in 5 different sports, the most among current Division 1-A teams.

In 1999, Sporting News named Penn State as the country's best overall athletic program, citing its consistent and wide-ranging athletic successes along with its athletes' long-standing tradition of excelling in the classroom. Penn State placed 6th in Sports Illustrated's top 25 rankings for athletic success for the 2007–08 academic year, the highest of any Big Ten school.

Penn State student-athletes receive academic honors that often far exceed those awarded to other Division 1-A schools. In the 2007–08 academic year, a school record 261 Penn State Student-Athletes earned Academic All-Big Ten honors. Penn State leads the Big Ten with 3,069 selections.

Despite widespread success in the overall athletic program, however, the school is best known for its football team, which draws a very large following. Penn State's Beaver Stadium has the second largest seating capacity of any stadium in the nation, with an official capacity of 106,572 slightly behind Michigan Stadium with an official capacity of 109,901. For decades, the football team was led by coach Joe Paterno who, in 2011, was fired in his 45th year as head coach as a result of the Penn State sex abuse scandal. Paterno was in a close competition with Bobby Bowden, the head coach for Florida State, for the most wins ever in Division I-A (now the FBS) history. This competition effectively ended with Paterno still leading following Bowden's retirement after the 2010 Gator Bowl. In 2007, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Paterno died on January 22, 2012, at the age of 85.

On July 23, 2012, the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced a series of sanctions against Penn State and the Nittany Lions football team for the role of their leadership in the Penn State sex abuse scandal. The sanctions include a fine of $60 million (to be paid into an endowment for programs aimed at preventing child sex abuse), a four-year postseason ban (including the Big Ten conference championship game), loss of 20 scholarships per year over a four-year period, a limit on incoming recruiting classes to 15 scholarships (instead of 25) for the next four years, and the vacating all Penn State victories from 1998 through 2011. The team was also placed on probation for five years.

In 2009, four-time national champion Cael Sanderson became the head coach of the wrestling team. Sanderson led the Nittany Lions to four consecutive national titles from 2011 to 2014.

The university opened a new Penn State All-Sports Museum in February 2002. This two-level 10,000-square-foot (1,000 m) museum is located inside Beaver Stadium. In addition to the school funded athletics, club sports also play a major role in the University, with over 68 club sport organizations meeting regularly to date. Many club teams compete nationally in their respective sports. The Penn State Ski Team, which competes as part of the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA) in the Allegheny Conference, as well as the Penn State Swim Club, which competes in the American Swimming Association – University League (ASAU), are just a few examples. Some other clubs include baseball, squash, karate, crew, and sailing.

Penn State's most well known athletic cheer is "We are...Penn State." Typically, the students and cheerleaders shout, "We are," followed by a response of "Penn State" from the rest of the fans. By tradition, this is done three times, and followed by "Thank you..." "... You're welcome!"

Prominent Penn State individuals

The list of eminent past and present individuals associated with Penn State—as alumni, faculty, and athletic staff—can be found in the list of Pennsylvania State University people.

The Alumni Association

Former President's house, now adjoined to the Hintz Alumni Center

Established in 1870, nine years after the university's first commencement exercises, the Penn State Alumni Association has the stated mission "to connect alumni to the University and to each other, provide valuable benefits to members and support the University's mission of teaching, research and service." The Alumni Association supports a number of educational and extracurricular missions of Penn State through financial support and is the network that connects alumni through over 280 "alumni groups", many of which are designated based on geographical, academic, or professional affiliation.

As of July 1, 2010, the Alumni Association counts 496,969 members within the United States, with an additional 16,180 in countries around the globe. About half the United States alumni reside in Pennsylvania, primarily in the urban areas of Philadelphia (and the surrounding counties), the Pittsburgh Area and in the Centre County region surrounding State College, although alumni can be found in every region of the country and abroad. About 34 percent of United States alumni and 21 percent of international alumni are members of the Alumni Association. With membership totaling 164,658, the Penn State Alumni Association is the largest dues-paying alumni association in the world, a distinction it has held since 1995.

Since 2001, the university, along with all schools in the Big Ten, has participated in the "Big Ten Challenge" website, which is a "competitive" clearinghouse of alumni donation statistics for member schools. Results are tracked to determine a percentage of each school's alumni from the previous decade who gave to their alma mater each calendar year (during the 2005–2006 year, alumni donations from 1996 to 2005 were tallied). With the exception of 2005–2006, when Penn State fell to second behind Northwestern University, Penn State has won the challenge each year since its inception.